N.Y. Times: Abramson's compensation 'was not less than' Bill Keller's

5/14/14 6:40 PM EDT

The New York Times is pushing back against a report that executive editor Jill Abramson was fired after protesting that her salary was lower than that of her predecessor Bill Keller.

"Jill's total compensation as executive editor was not less than Bill Keller's, so that is just incorrect," New York Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy told POLITICO on Wednesday. "Her pension benefit, like all Times employees, is based on her years of service and compensation. The pension benefit was frozen in 2009."

Murphy later added, "the reason for the departure was as we said earlier: Arthur's concern over certain aspects of newsroom management."

The New Yorker's Ken Auletta reported Wednesday that Abramson's termination was due in part to her decision to confront the paper's top brass about the pay disparity.

"Several weeks ago, I’m told, Abramson discovered that her pay and her pension benefits as both executive editor and, before that, as managing editor were considerably less than the pay and pension benefits of Bill Keller, the male editor whom she replaced in both jobs," Auletta reported. "'She confronted the top brass,' one close associate said, and this may have fed into the management’s narrative that she was 'pushy,' a characterization that, for many, has an inescapably gendered aspect."